Evolution of sex chromosome meiotic drive in stalk eyed fly populations

描述（由申请人提供）：性染色体减数分裂驱动是由自私的遗传因素引起的，它产生了高度扭曲的后代性别比例，通常在精子发生过程中杀死所有携带y的精子。这一过程导致了自私的减数分裂驱动元件与基因组其他部分之间激烈的基因组内冲突，预计这将对基因组的进化产生深远的影响。这项建议的长期目标是更好地理解减数分裂驱动是如何进化的。一个目的是利用RNA-seq对来自5个野生种群的直眼蝇（Teleopsis dalmanni）的驱动雄性和非驱动雄性的睾丸转录组进行测序，以确定这些种群中与减数分裂驱动相关的基因。这些数据将用于验证由减数分裂驱动引起的基因组内冲突导致基因复制和基因运动增加的假设。第二个目标是问什么选择力影响种群中减数分裂驱动的进化。这个问题是用实验进化的方法来解决的，即性选择是否限制了驱力的传递，以及驱力的存在如何影响人工种群中性选择特征的进化。这项研究扩展了我们对进化的理解

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sex chromosome meiotic drive is caused by a selfish genetic element that produces a highly skewed offspring sex ratio, often by killing all Y-bearing spermatids during spermatogenesis. This process results in intense intragenomic conflict between the selfish meiotic drive element and the rest of the genome, which is expected to have far reaching effects on the evolution of the genome. The long-term goal of this proposal is to better understand how meiotic drive evolves. One aim utilizes RNA-seq to sequence the testes transcriptome of drive and non-drive males from five wild populations of the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni, in order to identify genes associated with meiotic drive in these populations. These data will be used to test the hypothesis that intragenomic conflict caused by meiotic drive has driven increased gene duplication and gene movement. A second aim asks what selective forces affect the evolution of meiotic drive in populations. This question is addressed using an experimental evolution approach to ask whether sexual selection acts to limit the transmission of drive and how the presence of drive affects the evolution of sexually selected traits in artificial populations. This research expands our understanding of the evolution of meiotic drive by providing a useful contrast with previous research within the genus Drosophila, where sex ratio meiotic drive has also been studied. This proposal also has biomedical relevance because it will improve our understanding of spermatogenesis by investigating the evolution of natural variation in spermatogenesis, by comparing sex-ratio and standard males, on the level of genes and populations.